“Well, obviously that’s not how we scripted it,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Give Washington State a lot of credit. They came in and played a good ball game. The first half they were changing defenses, and we were standing around way too much. We forced them into 10 turnovers, we had nine turnovers. We were shooting 22 percent, they were shooting 30 percent. So it wasn’t a real clean half.”

The surprising loss ended a streak of 14 straight home of 10 points or more for the Huskies.

The loss also drops Washington to 19-9 on the season, and maybe for the first time this season could slip them back to the NCAA tournament bubble. UW also lost ground it could not afford in the Pac-10 race, falling to 10-6.

Washington State climbs to 18-10 and 8-8.

“To compete in this gym you have to be locked in and focused,” WSU coach Ken Bone said. “And I think our guys were exactly that.”

The Cougs also swept the season series continuing a streak in which one team or the other has swept the Apple Cup of basketball every season since 2002-03.

Despite being the only team to sweep UW this season, Romar said he doesn’t see the Cougars as a particular matchup problem.

“Their strength is their perimeter, and we have a pretty good perimeter as well,” Romar said. They’ve got a big guy underneath that’s pretty good, and I think we have one that’s pretty good. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad matchup.”

Of UW’s starting five, Matthew Bryan-Amaning didn’t get his first point until there was 13:05 left in the game, and C.J. Wilcox didn’t get his first points until 5:35 left.

However, Wilcox played a part in a late 16-4 run that got the Huskies and their home fans back into the game. However, UW got to within six – 65-59 — but no closer.

The loss was the 100th of Lorenzo Romar’s at UW.

Both schools now end their regular seasons with home games against the Los Angeles schools. Washington State will play host to USC on Thursday and UCLA on Saturday. Washington will play host to UCLA on Thursday and USC on Saturday.

I’ll be back with notes, stats and quotes.

1:50 WSU, 74-59. And the game is at a standstill now as tempers have flashed, technicals have been awarded each way, and the refs have spoken to both coaches.

4:08 Huskies pressing and 3-point shooting and suddenly back within dreaming distance, down 65-58 after treys by Wilcox and Thomas.

5:46 WSu, 61-47. Huskies picking up full court trying to get back into this. UW ball as Casto just picked up an offensive foul for putting his shoulder into Overton on a screen.

11:49 WSU, 50-32. During this timeout they’re doing a dancing feature on the scoreboard video screen, but nobody in the Dawg Pack seems in a dancing mood.

16:24 Klay Thompson 3 makes it 41-24 Cougars. And suddenly the WSU fans in here are making some noise.

Halftime: WSU, 24-17. And the game has been every bit as ugly as those numbers indicate. Washington’s previous halftime low was 28 points at Stanford. It’s also the fewest points in a first half in Romar’s nine seasons.

Huskies 8 of 36 shooting (22.2 percent) and 1 of 13 on 3-point tries (7.7 percent). Also three assists and nine turnovers.

Cougars not much better: 8 of 25 shotting (32 percent) and 2 of 8 on threes (25 percent). WSU has four assists and 10 turnovers.

About

A proud native of Longview, Wash., Christian Caple joins The News Tribune after covering Washington State football and men's basketball for two years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane (though he lived in Pullman). He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Washington, an avid NWAACC basketball fan, and is unsure how to proceed now that Breaking Bad is over.

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